Officer Acted Within Law in Killing, D.A. Reports

The district attorney’s office has concluded that San Diego Police Officer Danny Angotti acted within the law in the fatal shooting of Walter Welch, an attorney who police said threatened Angotti and another officer with a baseball bat.

In a four-page report dated Nov. 5, San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller Jr. said that Angotti’s “use of deadly force was legally justified.” Angotti, an 18-year veteran, shot Welch once in the chest June 20.

However, John Ready, Welch’s landlord and a witness quoted in the report, disputed the district attorney’s findings and said Welch “never raised the bat toward the officer.” Ready, a local attorney, also said the police officer who interviewed him after the incident misquoted him as saying that Welch threatened Angotti with the bat.

Ready, who was at the scene before police arrived, said that Welch never intended to swing the bat.

“As far as I could tell from my position, he wasn’t going to swing the bat. He was carrying it,” Ready said.

In the report, Miller said some witnesses “questioned the necessity of using lethal force.” But Miller quotes these same witnesses as agreeing that Angotti fired the fatal shot “only after Welch came menacingly toward him.”

Angotti, who now works patrol out of Northern Station, could not be reached for comment.

Homicide Capt. Dick Toneck said the department welcomed Miller’s findings. He said he was not familiar with Ready’s complaint that he was misquoted in the police report.

Ready said he “complained vigorously” to the police about the misquote. Toneck said homicide Lt. Dan Berglund was scheduled to meet with Ready today to discuss his complaint.

According to a police version of the incident, several Mission Beach residents called to report that Welch, 41, was smashing car windshields with a baseball bat and “exhibiting bizarre behavior” near Bay Side Walk and Ormond Court. Ken Martin was the first ground officer at the scene, arriving moments after a police helicopter.

Police said Martin and the officers in the helicopter, who used a public address system, ordered Welch to drop the bat and scissors. Welch ignored the commands and advanced toward Martin, police said.

Angotti arrived moments later to assist Martin. At one point, Martin, who had his pistol drawn, retreated from Welch and fell over a short picket fence. Martin regained his balance and escaped between some nearby houses, said a police report.

Welch then turned his attention toward Angotti, advancing toward the officer with the baseball bat parallel to the ground in one hand and the scissors in the other, said the district attorney’s report. The report said that Angotti, knowing there was a 3-foot-high wall behind him, fired one shot when Welch closed to within 20 feet, mortally wounding him.

The district attorney’s report relied in part on Ready’s witness statement and photographs that Ready took before and after the shooting. Ready made the photographs available to police homicide investigators.

However, San Diego police did not make the photographs immediately available to investigators for the district attorney, prompting criticism from Miller’s office.

“Unfortunately, those photographs were not turned over to this office when the case was presented for review,” Miller’s report said. “Before this office can render a thorough, impartial and independent review of the use of deadly force by a police officer, it is crucial that the agency investigating the incident provide all pertinent information and evidence.”

The report said district attorney investigators were not aware of the photographs until they were contacted by Ready.

Several people who knew Welch, a former employee of the county’s legal staff, described him as “weird and paranoid,” with emotional problems.